Browsing All Posts published on »March, 2010«

In a previous post, I bemoaned the list of Race to the Top Nominees: https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/and-the-rttt-nominees-are/ Today, we have our winners – Delaware and Tennessee. Here’s my own summary of where these states stand on a number of key indicators. See previous post for discussion. A helpful colleague offered the following summary bullet points for the […]

Note: This was written prior to the announcement that the scholarship amounts would be $6000 for elementary and $9000 for secondary schools. The same logic and findings apply, though to an even greater extreme in light of these numbers. Part of the argument being made for providing $8,000 scholarships for students to attend private schools […]

Only one table today, as I continue to try to figure out how elementary and secondary education staffing costs and teacher wages fit into state and local budget concerns in New Jersey. Are certified employee staffing salaries really escalating? Are they outstripping state and local budgets? I really am just trying to find the best […]

Here’s a quick run down on the distribution of cuts to state aid for New Jersey school districts for 2010-2011. Much has been made in the media about how the cuts are most severe for wealthy communities. The graphs below show that that depends much on what you’re looking at. Yes, these communities lose a […]

Download PPT Slides (UPDATED): jersey-taxes-and-teacher-wages_r6 I’ll do my best not to editorialize too much here. Just the facts. Just a few slides in order to clarify where New Jersey stands in terms of taxes, long run economic position and growth, teacher salaries and the allocation of resources in school districts. These slides are in response […]

There’s just not enough time in the day to deal with all of the absurdity out there right now and to do so in any thorough way. So, here are a couple of quick replies to what I’ve seen in the past week. 1. Cato released They Spent What? http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa662.pdf in an attempt to show […]

Not much time today to analyze, but I can’t pass up the opportunity for some quick comments on the Race to the Top Finalists announced today. The list is indeed a mixed bag (DC, CO, DE, DC, FL, GA, IL, KY, LA, MA, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN). And yes, the list does […]